On Stem Cell Research

"These are profound moral concerns, and your political ads and interviews have made them seem trivial, irrational and cruel—which they’re not. People who oppose embryonic stem-cell research want a cure as much as you want a cure, but they do not believe that you can pick healthy fruit from a poisoned tree." --Rabbi Marc Gellman, from a letter to Michael J. Fox in Newsweek.

"Reminds me the McDonald's commercial: "If you believe in magic, and I hope you do, you'll always have a friend wearing big red shoes." Except the embryonic stem cell version goes something like, "If you believe in hype, and I hope you do, scientists will be ready to take your tax dollars." --Jivin J, prolife blogger

"From the time of the Nuremberg Code, ethical norms on human experimentation have demanded that we never inflict death or disabling injury on any un-consenting individual of the human species simply for the benefit of others. Stem cell research requiring the destructive harvesting of cells from living embryos fails this test and should not be supported…." --Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities

"So today we sanction the production of a 5-day old human life to destroy it. Tomorrow it's a 3-month-old, then an 8-month-old fetus. How far is it, really, from a 5-day-old cloned embryo to fetal farming - manufacturing fetal humans to harvest their body parts? Not very far, when one recognizes how well the slippery slopes have already been greased. This is why we must safeguard human life from its earliest beginnings, if we wish to avoid its destruction at any later stage." --Father Tad Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center

"Given that embryos are human beings, they have a right to self and a right to life. Exploiting their parts (ie, cells) or killing them for research is moral trespass that society should not allow. Even if the research might, and let’s be clear, might benefit others, this trespass is not justified." --James Sherley, Ph.D. associate professor of biological engineering at MIT

"These children are living examples of why not one taxpayer dollar should be used for the destruction of human embryos. Once the government not only permits but funds the destruction of human life in the name of science, all life is devalued." --Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) (comment on the Snowflakes embryo adoption program)

"Because of the difficulty of getting ESCs [embryonic stem cells] to form desired tissues, the risk of tumor formation, genetic instability of ESCs in culture, and other problems, ESCs cannot be expected to provide treatments for juvenile diabetes anytime soon." --"Juvenile Diabetes Patients Need Real Hope, Not Hype and False promises," DoNoHarm (www.stemcellresearch.org)

"Adult Stem Cells, while relatively few in number, appear to be ubiquitous. They have been discovered in bone marrow, blood, brain, fat, skeletal muscle, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, nasal tissues, hair follicles--and most recently in the pulp of lost baby teeth." --Wesley J. Smith, lawyer and author of Consumer's Guide to the Brave New World

"But what really interests these scientists is putting another research arrow in their quiver. And as soon as this has missed the bullseye, they will start claiming that only brave new world baby farms will make miracle cures a reality. The appetite of stem cell scientists for tinkering with human life is insatiable. It must be resisted." --Michael Cook, editor of BioEdge